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Donald Trump has chosen Florida Senator Marco Rubio to be as his secretary of state in his forthcoming administration as his White House team continues to take shape.
The president-elect is also reportedly preparing to appoint South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Florida congressman Mike Waltz as his national security adviser.
On Monday, the Republican announced that the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Tom Homan, will come in as border czar, tasked with enacting the mass deportation of illegal immigrants he promised on the campaign trail.
Trump also picked another anti-immigration hardliner, Stephen Miller – architect of some of the most controversial border policies from his first term, including family separation – to be his deputy chief of staff for policy.
New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik has been tapped to serve as ambassador to the UN and ex-congressman Lee Zeldin to steer the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump will meet with Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday to discuss a transition schedule as the Senate elects a new majority leader to replace the outgoing Mitch McConnell.
Tom Homan threatens governors: ‘They better get the hell out of the way’
Trump’s new border czar was busy making appearances on Fox News yesterday and struck an uncompromisingly macho note, warning Democratic governors not to interfere with his planned operations and moving to reassure Sean Hannity that American citizens will not get caught up in it all.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 11:20
Will Trump eliminate the Department of Education?
As we’ve seen, the president-elect has been moving fast in picking cabinet members, although he has so far largely focused on posts with responsibility for national security.
He has talked about making Elon Musk a commissioner in charge of cutting government inefficiency and has identified the Department of Education (DOE) as a clear target for cutbacks – or even abolition altogether.
Trump considers the DOE, created by Jimmy Carter in 1979, a source of needless interference into American family lives (think all of those “woke” culture war battles being fought in Florida schools about what books are made available and how history is taught) and an example of a poor return on investment for taxpayers.
The Republican complained on the campaign trail that the US spends three times more money on education than any other nation “and yet we are absolutely at the bottom, we’re one of the worst”.
He also bizarrely claimed, without evidence of course, that the DOE is staffed by officials who “in many cases, hate our children” and declared: “We want states to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse.”
The idea for closing the DOE altogether is listed in the Trump campaign’s Agenda47 list of election policies and in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page opus making recommendations for a future Republican administration that Trump had to work hard to distance himself from during the election cycle.
Less drastic steps are also raised in the Agenda47 proposals like cutting funding for schools that continue to teach critical race theory (a running conservative bugbear) and/or, as they put it, “transgender insanity” or awarding credentials to teachers who “embrace patriotic values and support the American Way of Life”.
We appear to be a long way from any of this happening but it’s certainly in the water.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 11:00
Trump ally Steve Bannon in court today
The president-elect is not the only member of the MAGA-sphere awaiting the scales of justice today.
Trump’s former White House strategist and staunch ally Steve Bannon returns to a New York courtroom, having only been released from federal prison two weeks ago, in advance of his December trial for allegedly defrauding supporters of the 45th president’s attempt to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Bannon, the former Breitbart editor who is now primarily a podcaster, pleaded not guilty in 2022 to charges that he defrauded donors to “We Build the Wall”, an online fundraising effort to raise money for Trump’s signature policy.
The right-wing pundit told donors every cent they gave would go toward building the wall but prospectuses allege some of the $15m raised was secretly funnelled to Brian Kolfage, the campaign’s president.
Bannon’s trial is scheduled to begin on December 9 but he is trying to push it into January to give his attorney extra time to prepare.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 10:40
Judge set to rule on whether to scrap Trump’s conviction in hush money case
New York Judge Juan Merchan is due to decide today on whether to undo the president-elect’s conviction in his hush money case because of a US Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Judge Merchan, who presided over Trump’s historic trial this spring, is now tasked with deciding whether to toss out the jury verdict and order a new trial – or even dismiss the charges altogether.
The judge’s ruling also could speak to whether the former and now future commander-in-chief will be sentenced as scheduled on November 26.
The Republican won back the White House a week ago but the legal question concerns his status as a past president, not an impending one.
A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in October 2016.
The payout was to buy her silence about claims that she had sex with Trump.
He says they didn’t, denies any wrongdoing and maintains the prosecution was a political tactic meant to harm his latest campaign.
Just over a month after the verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that ex-presidents can’t be prosecuted for actions they took in the course of running the country and prosecutors can’t cite those actions even to bolster a case centered on purely personal conduct.
Trump’s lawyers cited the ruling to argue that the hush money jury got some evidence it shouldn’t have, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form and testimony from some White House aides.
Prosecutors disagreed and said the evidence in question was only “a sliver” of their case.
Trump’s criminal conviction was a first for any ex-president.
It left the 78-year-old facing the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 10:20
Trump ally and election denier Kari Lake loses Arizona Senate race to Ruben Gallego
MAGA Republican Kari Lake has lost her race for the Arizona Senate to Democrat Ruben Gallego, who becomes the Grand Canyon State’s first Latino senator.
Gallego’s win helps prevent the GOP further extending its majority in the upper chamber of Congress and continues his party’s successful run in Arizona over the last decade, where voters have repeatedly rejected candidates backed by Donald Trump.
Trump himself beat Kamala Harris there in last week’s presidential race, however, securing his clean sweep of the swing states.
“Gracias, Arizona!” Gallego, 44, wrote on X after his victory was confirmed, thanking the state’s voters for a win that nevertheless means Republicans still hold 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate.
Gallego is a five-term House member and a Marine Corps Reserve veteran of the Iraq War, who will replace Kyrsten Sinema, whose 2018 victory as a Democrat created a formula that the party has successfully replicated ever since.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 10:00
Trump picks New York Republican Lee Zeldin to lead EPA
One last cabinet pick and then we’ll move on.
The president-elect is thought to be going for ex-New York congressman Lee Zeldin, a man who “voted against environmental bills 85 percent of the time”, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Perfect.
Eric Garcia reports.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 09:40
Trump eyeing China hawk Mike Waltz as national security adviser
Another man who looks set to join Trump in Washington DC is Florida Representative Mike Waltz, who will step into shoes previously worn by HR McMaster, John Bolton and Robert O’Brien if he is indeed chosen.
Josh Marcus reports.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 09:20
President-elect wants Marco Rubio for secretary of state
In another key appointment, the president-elect has chosen the Florida Republican lawmaker, who was a regular on the 2024 campaign trail with him, to become the country’s top diplomat, sources told The New York Times on Monday evening.
The Cuban-American, 53, will become the first Latino to serve in the role when Trump takes office in January.
He’ll face a geopolitical landscape where multiple US allies are at war abroad, including Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
He’ll also be expected to deliver on key campaign promises that are closer to home, like dramatically cutting illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border.
Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010 and was reportedly considered as a 2024 running mate by Trump.
He is viewed as a hawk on both China and Iran and a staunch supporter of Israel.
Here’s more from Graeme Massie and Josh Marcus.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 08:55
Donald Trump taps South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for Homeland Security secretary in new cabinet
The president-elect has chosen South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security in his forthcoming administration as his White House team continues to take shape.
Noem might be best known to millions around the world after revealing in her memoir earlier this year that she had shot dead her disobedient pet dog Cricket, an anecdote that was seemingly intended to convey her leadership qualities but which instead may have cost her the chance to run as Trump’s vice presidential nominee, an honor that instead went to Ohio Senator JD Vance.
Here’s James Liddell on his latest appointment.
Joe Sommerlad12 November 2024 08:25
Trump’s biggest critics are already bracing for retribution
Donald Trump — who baselessly accuses President Joe Biden’s administration of “weaponizing” law enforcement and the court against him — will enter office on January 20, 2025, with an array of executive powers at his fingertips.
He could soon prepare to seek revenge against those he believes have wronged him.
Alex Woodward12 November 2024 08:00
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